FRIDAYS: The Book You Have to Read (Many years ago...)
This
is the first of what I optimistically hope will become Friday
recommendations of books we love but might have forgotten over the
years. I have asked several people to help me by also remembering a
favorite book. Their blog sites are listed below. I also asked each of
them to tag someone to recommend a book for next Friday. I'm worried
great books of the recent past are sliding out of print and out of our
consciousness. Not the first-tier classics we all can name, but the
books that come next. Here's my choice.And here were the first choices from other bloggers.
City by Clifford D. Simak (Bill Crider)
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler (Clair Dickson)
Scar Lover by Harry Crews (A.N. Smith)
Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (Sandra Scoppettone)
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis (Patrick Shawn Bagley)
Dust Devils by James Reasoner (Sandra Ruttan)
The God Files by Frank Turner (Brian Lindenmuth)
Don't Let's Go to the Dog Tonight by Alexandria Fuller (Josephine Damian)
The Rock Orchard by Paula Wall (Travis Erwin)
When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza (Ello)
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (Eudamonia for All)
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox (Patti Abbott)
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
It's difficult to remember, thirty years on, New York
in the seventies, The City was facing bankruptcy, the streets were
dangerous, frequent strikes left unattended garbage for the rodents,
buildings crumbled. Paula Fox's novel Desperate Characters
perfectly captures that time along with the similarly disintegrating
marriage of Sophie and Otto Bentwood. The story begins with an
unexpected cat bite. "Because it's savage," Otto answers Sophie's
puzzled, "why?" It was a cat she was trying to feed that bit her. This
well-intentioned act, this McGuffin, sends the couple off on a weekend
odyssey, where ominous events continue to haunt the childless couple.
They find little solace in each other and there is no easy resolution at
the end. The quiet desperation that suffuses their story is
heart-breaking. The writing is haunting, lucid, and succinct.
Fox has also written two books about her life (Borrowed Finery and The Coldest Winter), a few other novels (The Widow's Children) and many children's books. But nothing is finer than this one for me.
The links courtesy of Todd Mason
3 comments:
Yes, years after seeing the movie version (which I only remember in the vaguest way) I did finally read the book. Brooklyn was very different then in a lot of ways. Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope changed fast. Now they are untouchable unless you're a movie star or other very rich person.
I think Fox was just getting started as a YA writer by the time I pretty much didn't read YA any longer...I've managed to miss the film of this novel, and not pick up her novels since, though the title resonates in the more-uncertain memory than it was, even 20 years ago...
It's been Only 15 years...nonetheless, pretty good for a group exercise!
https://pattinase.blogspot.com/2008/04/fridays-book-you-have-to-read.html
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